Margaret, married with two small children, has been working for the last seven years as a night cleaner, cleaning offices in a big building.

She trained as a nurse, but had to give it up when her elder child became seriously ill. “I would have liked to go back to it, but the shifts(工作班次) are all wrong for me, as I have to be home to get the children up and off to school.”

So she works as a cleaner instead, from 9 a.m. till 6 a.m. five nights a week for just £90, before tax and insurance. “It’s  better than it was  last year, but I still think that people who work ‘unsocial hours’ should get a bit extra.”

The hours she’ s chosen to work meant that she sees plenty of the children, but very little of her husband. However, she doesn’t think that puts any pressure on their relationship.

Her work isn’t physically very hard, but it’s not exactly pleasant, either. “I do get angry with people who leave their offices like a place for raising pigs. If they realized people like me have to do it, perhaps they’d be a bit more careful.”

The fact that she’s working all night doesn’t worry Margaret at all. Unlike some dark buildings at night, the building where she works is fully lit, and the women work in groups of three. “Since I’ve got to be here, I try to enjoy myself——and I usually do, because of the other girls. We all have a good laugh, so the time never drags.”

Another challenge Margaret has to face is the reaction of other people when she tells them what she does for a living. “They think you’re a cleaner because you don’t know how to read and write,” said Margaret. “I used to think what my parents would say if they knew what I’d been doing, but I don’t think that way any more. I don’t dislike the work though I can’t say I’m mad about it.”

Margaret quit her job as a nurse because _______

A. she wanted to earn more money to support her family

B. she had suffered a lot of mental pressure

C. she needed the right time to look after her children

D. she felt tired of taking care of patients

Margaret gets angry with people who work in the office because Margaret _______.

A. they never clean their offices

B. they look down upon cleaners

C. they never do their work carefully

D. they always make a mess in their offices

When at work, Margaret feels _______.

A. light-hearted because of her fellow workers

B. happy because the building is fully lit

C. tired because of the heavy workload

D. bored because time passed slowly

The underlined part in the last paragraph implies that Margaret’s parents would _______.

A. help care for her children

B. regret what they had said

C. show sympathy for her

D. feel disappointed in her

阅读下面短文,掌握其大意,然后从36-45各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出一个最佳答案。
I don’t think there is any one being as interested in food as I. We lived on a farm in Lincolnshire and had a good    36  . She made fantastic English food; her roast beef was out of this world. I used to love going down to the     37 _  and watching her work, and I learned a lot from her. I realized that I wanted to be a cook when I was about 12. When other boys  __ 38   to do sports after school, I helped with cooking at home. By the time I was 15, I had   _39   to be a cook. However, I knew my parents wouldn’t allow me to be a cook. I had to tell them about it    40.
I told them that I wanted to do a cookery course for fun, and stayed for a month in a hotel in Torquay. I enjoyed it so much that I couldn’t put off telling my parents any longer,   41  I brought the subject up one night over dinner.  42  there was silence, and then my father asked me why. I explained that cooking was   43  painting a picture or writing a book. Every meal was a work of creation. I could see that my father disagreed, but he was not   44 . He just looked at me and smiled. My mother kissed me. And now I have my own restaurant, and it goes well. I can see they are   45 me. However, my grandfather thinks I’m mad to give up farming.

【小题1】
A.farmerB.painterC.cookD.nurse
【小题2】
A.restaurantB.hotelC.farmD.kitchen
【小题3】
A.choseB.refusedC.hatedD.failed
【小题4】
A.decidedB.agreedC.managedD.turned
【小题5】
A.easilyB.softlyC.slowlyD.quietly
【小题6】
A.butB.soC.orD.for
【小题7】
A.At firstB.At lastC.At leastD.At times
【小题8】
A.withB.likeC.aboutD.above
【小题9】
A.patientB.satisfiedC.quietD.angry
【小题10】
A.proud ofB.sorry forC.friendly toD.strict with

Here’s an idyllic(田园风光的) scene: a small village where the sun always shines, crops always grow and your friends drop by to sweep your yard to the sound of guitar music. Animals do what they are told, there is no disease, and lending folks a helping hand makes you richer and wiser. Welcome to FarmVille — current population 69m and rising fast.
“It reminds me of my childhood,” says one player, Lia Curran, 37, a chemist from London. “Right now I’m growing wheat and poinsettia, I’ve got a small orchard, and I’m keeping some chickens and some cows. I like having the animals. It’s comfortable.”
Curran’s young animals, however, are nothing more than a collection of computer-controlled cartoons. FarmVille is an online computer game built into the social networking site Facebook and is described by its players as “addictive”. Launched last June by Zynga Game Network, FarmVille now has more players than Twiter’s entire user base — or more than the population of the UK. The players are largely women over the age of 35.
Jenny Glyn, 33, a London housewife, started playing in September. “I had a look at a friend’s farm and was hooked,” she says. “My first motivation was to overtake her, but I did that pretty quickly. Now there’s something satisfying about growing crops.”
FarmVille intellectually unites the worlds of social networking and gaming. Players are given a patch of ground with six fields, “cash”, a few seeds and a plough and have to build up wealth, skills and neighbors to create bigger, better, richer farms.
Inviting your online friends to play means you earn more and get free gifts; you rise rapidly through the first levels but, once hooked, have to work harder and harder with no final level or goal in sight.
“It’s very moreish,” says Curran. She hasn’t yet paid real-world money to advance in the game, but her friends do. One buys extra virtual currency at the exchange rate of $240 (£145) in FarmVille for $40 (£24) in the real world.
“I’d expanded on FarmVille as much as I could, but I just wanted a pond and some bushes and trees around it,” says the woman, who is too embarrassed to be named. “I didn’t tell my husband I’d paid real money because he’d think I’m mad. But then he did keep me waiting in the car outside our house while he harvested his raspberries.”
Brian Dudley, chief executive at Broadway Lodge, an addiction treatment centre, warns that this sort of obsessive(令人着魔的) play can lead to an addiction as severe as gambling.
59. What does Curran do in the passage?
A. She is a player.                                                      B. She is a farmer who grows wheat and poinsettia.
C. She is a chemist.                                                  D. She is a housewife who raises chickens and cows.
60. By FarmVille, the writer means ______.
A. an addictive farm on which live 69 million farmers
B. a London housewife’s farm
C. an online computer game built into the social networking site
D. a farm on which people grow real crops and play as well
61. In the last but one paragraph, the husband kept the woman waiting outside ______.
A. because he was angry at his wife’s being mad about the farm
B. because he himself was busy with his farm
C. in order to punish his wife for her having paid real money
D. so that his wife would wake up from her addiction to the farm
62. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
A. The population of the UK is less than 69 million.
B. This sort of obsessive play can cause very severe addiction.
C. Once hooked, one has to make greater efforts to reach a higher level.
D. Up till now, nobody has yet paid real-world money to advance in the play.

Margaret, married with two small children, has been working for the last seven years as a night cleaner, cleaning offices in a big building.
She trained as a nurse, but had to give it up when her elder child became seriously ill. “I would have liked to go back to it, but the shifts(工作班次)are all wrong for me, as I have to be home to get the children up and off to school.”
So she works as a cleaner instead, from 9 p.m. till 6 a.m. five nights a week for just £90, before tax and insurance. “It’s better than it was last year, but I still think that people who work ‘unsocial hours’ should get a bit extra.”
The hours she’s chosen to work mean that she sees plenty of the children, but very little of her husband. However, she doesn’t think that puts any pressure on their relationship.
Her work isn’t physically very hard, but it’s not exactly pleasant, either. “I do get angry with people who leave their offices like a place for raising pigs. If they realized people like me have to do it, perhaps they’d be a bit more careful.”
The fact that she’s working all night doesn’t worry Margaret at all. Unlike some dark buildings at night, the building where she works is fully lit, and the women work in groups of three. “Since I’ve got to be here, I try to enjoy myself—— and I usually do, because of the other girls. We all have a good laugh, so the time never drags.”
Another challenge Margaret has to face is the reaction of other people when she tells them what she does for a living. “They think you’re a cleaner because you don’t know how to read and write,” said Margaret, “I used to think what my parents would say if they knew what I’d been doing, but I don’t think that way any more. I don’t dislike the work though I can’t say I’m mad about it.”
【小题1】Margaret quit her job as a nurse because _______.

A.she wanted to earn more money to support her family
B.she had suffered a lot of mental pressure
C.she needed the right time to look after her children
D.she felt tired of taking care of patients
【小题2】Margaret gets angry with people who work in the office because _______.
A.they never clean their offices
B.they look down upon cleaners
C.they never do their work carefully
D.they always make a mess in their offices
【小题3】When at work, Margaret feels _______.
A.light-hearted because of her fellow workers
B.happy because the building is fully lit
C.tired because of the heavy workload
D.bored because time passes slowly
【小题4】The underlined part in the last paragraph implies that Margaret’s parents would _______.
A.help care for her children
B.regret what they had said
C.show sympathy for her
D.feel disappointed in her

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